Prepare your wood:
1. Layout your boards in your desired format. I decided I wanted a horizontal sign, approximately 3 feet by 3 feet to fit on the side wall of our home. I measured each board so it was approximatly 3 feet in length then trimmed the edges. As you can see the edges of my sign are in no way perfect, this adds to its rustic charm.

2. Choose which side you think is best for the front. Once confirmed, turn them all over good side down.

3. Take some scrap wood, like a few strips of ply wood and place them vertically close to each edge of your sign to use like a bracket for hanging afterwords. These will be used for hanging it later and attaches the horizontal boards together, the longer your sign the more support boards you'll need. Cut them so they won't show past the sign and then add screws down each length to attach the barn board.

Draw:

4. I did a smaller heart drawing here as a sample. Roughly sketch out your drawing in my case I wanted a 'W' to act as our family monogram. I googled some font styles I like and free hand drew the W, again it's not perfect but looks great from far away. Using a pencil press firmly to make the outline. Here I drew a small heart.

Paint / Base Coat: 5. Next it's time to paint. I used cheap Craft Acrylic paint I think from the dollar discount store. I started by painting my entire design white first. Push your brush into all the little nooks and crannies. Let it dry over night. The base coat will help fill in the cracks and bumps and acts as a primer for your color.

Add Color:

6. Next mix your desired color and lots of it. Paint over the white, don't worry if you miss a few spots. It will give your design some dimension. Let this coat dry, once dry see if your color needs one more coat to ensure the coverage is good.

Antique it:
7. Time to antique it. I used black acrylic paint. I took my brush and did a really thin black line around some but not all of my design, as I went I used a damp paper towel and blotted and rubbed the black off a bit as I went. Here's a sample with the white heart design.

You'll end up with something like this:

Let's be honest, this is in no way a perfect outline, but from far it's going to look rustic and like it's been bleached by the sun for decades.

Stain it:
8. Give your sign a few coats of clear stain so your acrylic paint doesn't wash off in the next rain storm. I like the Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane spray in a can, it's really easy to use & you don't get the mess of cleaning up brushes afterwards.

Hang it:
9. Lastly time to hang, my hubby used a pretty heavy duty hammer drill to drill a few screws through the front of the sign but where the 2X4's where attached to hang to our brick wall, it's not going anywhere.

What do you think? I love it and it looks great with my perennial
garden. We live near the beach so it especially fits in I think.